The web series Pritam And Pedro, produced by Rajkumar Hirani and starring his son Vir Hirani alongside Arshad Warsi and Vikrant Massey, has been appreciated for its humour, writing, performances and, most importantly, its message about cybercrime. Ironically, a youth in Gurugram allegedly took inspiration from the series to commit a crime himself. His plan, however, was short-lived as the police tracked him down and arrested him.
As per an article in the Times of India, the accused, Alok K, posed as a student counsellor and met a 21-year-old person earlier this year, who was enrolled in a distance-learning programme for an MBA (finance) with a prestigious management institute. The student and the accused met at a cafe in Juhu, Mumbai and the latter helped the former complete his admission formalities. As a result, the student started to trust him.
A few months ago, the victim was appearing for an online exam when an alert appeared on his device screen that copying had been detected. According to the report in the Times of India, the student called the accused and clarified that he was not copying. The same alert popped up on the last day of the exam, and this time, the application crashed.
The article then states, “Alok called up the student and inquired whether he had been copying again. At this, the student once again denied any wrongdoing. The student grew nervous when Alok warned him that he would be debarred and blacklisted and would never be able to get admission in any other university in future. Alok offered to sort out the matter and started demanding money. He also promised to refund the money if he was unable to do the job.”
The student then transferred Rs. 24.60 lakhs in installments, out of which Alok refunded him only Rs. 1.15 lakh. Meanwhile, the student passed the exam and yet, the accused kept on demanding money. This is when the student realized that he had been conned. He told his parents about it and subsequently lodged a complaint at the Bangur Nagar police station earlier this month.
The cops surveilled Alok’s phone records and the money trail, which helped them track his location to Gurugram. He was arrested on September 11. The article revealed, “Police said Alok used to previously work at a call centre that had been contracted by the management institute to coordinate with all students regarding admissions and counselling. He got the victim’s phone number from the call centre’s database and targeted him. Police have seized two cellphones from him.”
Once arrested, the accused revealed to the cops that he was inspired by the antagonist, essayed by Vikrant Massey, in Pritam And Pedro and intended to use social engineering and impersonation to deceive the victim.
Also Read: Rajkumar Hirani’s Pritam and Pedro becomes India’s most-watched web series of 2026 with 23 million viewers